Viva café is a brand new café in barrio La California in San José and it will blow your mind in many ways.

“We’re brewing your cup of good energy”

Viva la vida!

It is a tiny cosy café, very nicely designed, where you will want to hang out for hours. The sweet Leda runs the place and makes you feel welcome straight away, together with talented barista Adrian.

Leda’s family has been working with coffee for a long time. If she has decided to open her own coffee shop today, it is to keep on with the family tradition, but also to have a direct contact with the customers. The idea is to offer the people of San José a different feel for coffee in a different café. And it works.

Adrian wanted to be a barista in Viva café to share with people his excitement for new brewing methods (here brewing a chemex) and serve customers the best coffees available in the country.

Choosing the coffee to offer to customers is not an easy task and is a team work. First, Leda tastes many different coffees to select the few ones she loves. Then, she works tightly with her father, who also is the roaster, to find the appropriate roast profiles for each coffee. Once she has made up her mind, she is free to go directly to the farms with her dad and her barista Adrian to visit the cafetales (coffee plantations) and the micro beneficios (micromills). A journey from the seed to the cup, the dream of any roaster/barista.

“People are used to drinking washed coffee. We want to offer them the chance to taste a honey-processed or a natural coffee so they can discover something new”

In her café, Leda wants to emphasise on educating customers about the different ways of processing coffee and give them the chance to taste different types of washed, honey-processed and natural coffees. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, go ask her!

Your hungry stomach will be happy to have lunch or dessert, but what I very warmly recommend is the coffee. I have not been to any other café where the coffee tastes so great, and that is why this is already a popular café. Leda chooses the coffee she wants to serve in her café, it is then roasted with skills by her dad. You can enjoy it as any espresso-based drinks or brewed with a French Press or a chemex. What more would you want?

A couple in their 30s having lunch, 3 tourists from southern Europe, probably the parents and their son, 2 men in what looked like a business meeting/lunch. It was a quiet afternoon at café Mundo.

Café Mundo is a fairly well-known fancy café/restaurant in San José. Fancy because located in barrio Otoya, a district close to the city centre but quiet, where you can still admire old colonial houses while walking around. One of them was turned into a café some 15 years ago.

Ideally located in the corner of avenida 9 and calle 15, the main reason why you should visit café Mundo is its location. Not only it is in a big beautiful house built in 1910, but there are many seats outside on the front terrace, or even more quiet, back terrace. This is actually a well kept secret in San José since it isn’t very common to find places to sit outside.

It has arrived. Barely, but still, it has started to literally pour down every afternoon, from 1 or 2pm until the night falls, sometimes even later. So, since it’s not likely to stop any time soon, here are some tips that work for me (so far) to keep on smiling and make it through the longest season of the year in Central America.

I had been wondering for a while why those huge holes along the streets. My friend said “wait until the rainy season comes and you’ll understand”. I do understand now.

1/ Get an automatic umbrella

You know, those where you just need to push a button and they open automatically. Am I the only to think it’s fun to use? Well, we’ll see for how long that will entertain me but for now, it works.

2/ Get a pair of rain boots

I know you’re not 5 anymore, but I assure you, you will feel like it when you put it on. The world becomes yours, you get to walk anywhere and you won’t get grumpy because your feet are wet or you buried your high heel in the mud.

3/ Adjust your playlist!

Listen to what doesn’t fit with rainy atmosphere, go for contrasts, something extra cheery that makes you feel like dancing in the streets/bus/home. Here are some ideas :

Fresh up your Spanish with Calle 13:

Armed with your rubber boots and umbrella, walk under the rain and keep smiling with RJ2D:

Forget about Scandinavian music for a while, except The Whitest Boy Alive:

Some cosy music, Waldeck always works:

4/Don’t forget to stop and listen to the rain, it is nice and relaxing. And it’s a good excuse to stay home and relax, and play (board) games with your favourite person.